NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 26 – The High Court has permanently blocked the Andrew Ligale-led team from publishing the list of 80 new constituencies in the Kenya Gazette.
Justice Daniel Musinga said the Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission (IIBRC) failed to exercise its mandate as provided by the law under Schedule Six of the new Constitution.
The judge then went ahead and confirmed interim orders issued by Justice Jeanne Gacheche that blocked the IIBRC from publishing the controversial list.
"The ex-parte orders that was sought and granted was proper and shall continue to remain in force," Justice Musinga ruled.
He ruled that the IIBRC in undertaking such an important task should have exercised transparency.
"We must not forget where our country was in 2007. Therefore any dispute or misunderstanding should be solved with sobriety," he said.
The judge ruled that IIBRC did not comply with the law when it failed to include names and details of the constituencies as required, since the population data it ought to have relied on was still incomplete.
"Population data is still incomplete and would not therefore be fully used for delimitation of the electoral units," the judge said.
"I would take that the first respondent (IIBRC) in publishing the names of every constituency ought to disclose population and square kilometres of every electoral unit."
Justice Musinga however said that the Commission\’s Chairman Andrew Ligale and two of his commissioners who were sued were legally in office until the expiry of the term of the commission on Saturday.
Another case filed by 11 legislators is due to come up on Monday for further directions from the Chief Justice.
The file was sent to the CJ earlier this week for him to appoint a two-judge bench.
The boundaries row has split politicians in the middle with one group supporting the gazettment of the new constituencies while another has vehemently opposed it, vowing to go to all lengths to block the publication.
The dispute is blamed for the delay of approving nominees to the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution and the Commission on Revenue Allocation on Thursday in Parliament. A Cabinet committee met Mr Ligale on Wednesday and urged him to review the list to accommodate the raging dissent.
The mandate of the IIBRC is set to expire on Saturday and a new Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission will take over the mandate.
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